With growing demand for ubiquitous computing and networking, various wireless technologies have been developed, such as the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) technology and telecommunication technologies. The WLAN technology is also called the Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) technology. The telecommunication technologies include Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) technology, General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) technology, Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution (EDGE) technology, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) technology, Code Division Multiple Access 2000 (CDMA-2000) technology, Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) technology, Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, Time-Division LTE (TD-LTE) technology, and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technology, etc.
For convenience and flexibility, most UEs nowadays are equipped with two wireless communication modules for supporting both the WLAN technology and at least one telecommunication technology. In order to improve the transceiving throughput of the UEs and reduce network operation and management costs of cellular operators, the technique called LTE-WLAN aggregation (LWA) is proposed and defined by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). By employing the LWA technique, a UE may be configured by the LTE network to use both the WLAN technology and the LTE technology for simultaneous data transmission/reception, as shown in FIG. 1.
According to release 13 or release 14 of the 3GPP specifications, the LTE network relies on the UE to measure and report the signal strength/quality of the radio environment, so that it can dynamically adjust the configurations for LWA according to the change of signal strength/quality of the radio environment. There are two types of measurement reports defined in the 3GPP specifications, including periodic measurement reports and event-triggered measurement reports. Disadvantageously, the periodic nature of the periodic measurement reports not only makes them difficult to convey real-time changes in the signal strength/quality of the radio environment, but also occupies a certain amount of radio resources, causing negative impacts on the utilization of radio resources.
On the other hand, the event-triggered measurement reports are limited to only specific events defined in the 3GPP specifications. However, none of those events can be used to indicate the situation where the signal strength/quality of the WLAN has become better. As a result, the LTE network is unable to dynamically adjust the configurations for LWA to increase the traffic volume through the WLAN, and the transceiving throughput may not be improved as it could be.